STORY IV

BUDDY¹ PIGG PLAYS BALL

"Hello, Buddy!" called Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, to Buddy Pigg one fine day, "come on out, and we'll have a game of ball," and Sammie tossed his ball high up in the air and caught it in his catching² glove, as easily as you can eat two ice cream cones³, a vanilla⁴ and a chocolate one, on a hot day.

"Why, we two can't play ball alone," objected Buddy. "It needs three, anyhow."

"Oh, well, we'll find Billie and Johnie Bushytail somewhere in the woods," went on Sammie, "and maybe Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck, will come along, too. Then there is Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, who have come back from the country. Oh, we can get up a regular team."

"All right, I'll come," agreed Buddy. "Wait until I bring in some wood for mother. She is going to bake some turnip⁵ pies to-day—out of the turnip you and I and Billie Bushytail got yesterday—and she needs a hot fire. I just love turnip pies; don't you, Sammie?"

"Indeed I do, but I don't believe we are going to have any. Mother stewed⁶ my half of the turnip."

"Never mind," advised Buddy Pigg, "I'll give you some of our pies when they are baked," so he brought in two big armfuls of wood for the fire, and then he and Sammie went off to play ball, leaving Brighteyes Pigg home to help her mamma bake the pies, which the little guinea pig girl loved to do.

Well, Buddy and Sammie hadn't gone very far before they met Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the boy squirrels, and they agreed to play ball. Then, as the four of them went along a little farther, they met Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, out walking with Percival, the old circus dog. So Peetie and Jackie said they would play ball, and that made six.

"Now, if we had two more we would have four on a side," suggested Buddy, and, no sooner had he spoken than there was a noise in the bushes, and out came Jimmie Wibblewobble, and Bully⁷, the frog.

They were very glad to play ball, and soon there were two sides selected. Buddy Pigg was captain of one side, and for players he had Peetie Bow Wow, Billie Bushytail, and Bully, while Sammie Littletail was the other captain, and he had Jackie Bow Wow, Johnnie Bushytail and Jimmie Wibblewobble.

"Now we're all ready, let's play," suggested Buddy.

"No, wait a moment," begged Bully.

"Why?" they all wanted to know.

"Because," replied the little frog boy, "my brother, Bawly, has just made up a new song, and I know he'll give us no peace until he sings it. He's coming along now. Let him sing the song, and then we'll play ball." So they agreed to that, and in a minute Bawly came hopping⁸ along.

"Do you want to hear my new song?" he asked.

"Yes—hurry up," they all cried. So Bawly sang this:

Oh, wiggily, waggily, wheelery,

I wish that I was rich.

I'd buy an automobilery,

And ride it in our ditch.

I wouldn't hop⁹ at all again.

I'd ride the whole day long.

But I haven't got an auto¹⁰,

And so I sing this song.

"I don't call that much of a song," said the old circus dog, Percival. "You ought to do a dance after it. That's what the clowns always do."

"Thank you, I'm not a clown," answered Bawly. "But could you make up a song like that, and sing it yourself? That's what I want to know," he asked.

"I don't s'pose I could," answered Percival. "But if we're going to the ball game, let's go." So they hurried on, and pretty soon they met Uncle Wiggily Longears.

"Oh, will you umpire¹¹ for us?" asked Sammie.

"Ha! Hum!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit, as he leaned on his crutch¹². "I ought to go on to the office, but—ah!—er—well, as long as you have no one else to umpire for you, I suppose I will have to do it, but I really ought to go to the office. Who is going to play?" he asked, and he seemed real anxious to know.

So they told him, and pretty soon they got to the baseball field, and began the game. Buddy Pigg and his players were last at the bat, and Sammie and his players came up first.

Well, it was a great game. Sammie struck out, but Jackie Bow Wow made a nice home run, and Jimmie Wibblewobble almost did, only he got put out at the home plate, and then Johnnie Bushytail, he got put out, trying to steal to second base, which means getting there on the sly, you know; and then it came the turn of Buddy and his friends to bat the ball all over if they could.

Well, Johnnie Bushytail was the pitcher¹³, and he threw in such fine curves, and so many of them, that it was hard for Buddy and his friends to strike the ball.

They did manage to hit it a little, and got three runs. Then it came the turn of Sammie Littletail's team again, and they got four runs, and so it went along until at the close of the game Sammie's team was eight runs and Buddy's only seven.

"We've got to get two runs to win," cried Billie Bushytail, "everybody work hard."

"We will," cried Bully, the frog. Now you girls just listen carefully, something wonderful will happen in about a minute.

Well, Peetie Bow Wow made one run, and then Bully and Billie got put out, and it was Buddy's turn to bat the ball. It all depended on him now. If he could make a home run his side would win.

Well, I just wish you could have seen how bravely Buddy walked up to the home plate, and stood there, while Johnnie Bushytail almost tied himself into a bow knot in throwing a double-jointed up-and-down-sideways curve.

Buddy Pigg swung at it, and—no, he didn't miss it, he hit it good and proper, and away sailed the ball. Off Buddy started for first base, hoping he could make a home run, but alas! before he got to second base the ball he had knocked was coming down, and was almost in the webbed foot of Jimmie Wibblewobble, who was waiting to catch it, and if it was caught that would mean that Buddy would be out, and his side would not win that inning.

But Jimmie didn't catch the ball! No, sir! The strangest thing happened! At that moment if along didn't fly the kind fish hawk¹⁴; and he swooped¹⁵ down and caught that ball up in his strong bill, and sailed away up in the air with it, and Buddy ran on and on as fast as he could go, around the bases, and toward home plate, and he got there in time to win the game. And then the fish hawk dropped the ball, and Jimmie caught it, but it was too late to put Buddy out.

"That's not fair!" cried Sammie Littletail. "The bird took the ball up in the air." All his side said it wasn't fair, but Uncle Wiggily, the umpire, decided¹⁶ that it was fair, and Buddy's side won the game, but they wouldn't have if it hadn't been for the fish hawk, and they were very thankful to him.

Now I think I'm going to tell you in the next story about Brighteyes and Sister Sallie—that is if no one takes our door mat to use for a pen wiper.